23rd April 2000
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Fact file
Investment in project
The Consortium of six British and American Companies include, Bioset Inc., Conrad Cleanair Inc., Mayfran World-wide, Green Triangle and Global Advanced Recycling (Europe) Ltd. (GAR). Derek Raffell of GAR the sister company of the local entity will be the CEO while Fred Elias will take the chair and the post as Managing Director. The total investment in the project is estimated at around US$ 20 million. An estimated 700 people will be employed in the entire project. Mr. Elias said mobile plants would be deployed in areas where a permanent plant could not be set up.The organic fertiliser
Organic fertiliser added to gardens improves soil structure, texture, aeration, and water retention. Mixing organic fertiliser with soil also contributes to erosion control, soil fertility, proper pH balance, and healthy root development in plants. The standard means of disposal for most yard and food waste includes landfilling and incineration. These practices are not as environmentally or economically sound as converting them to organic fertiliser. Yard waste that is landfilled breaks down very slowly due to the lack of oxygen. As it decomposes, it produces methane gas and acidic leachate, which are both environmental problems Landfilling organic wastes also takes up landfill space needed for other wastes. Incinerating moist organic waste is inefficient and results in poor combustion, which disrupts the energy generation of the facility and increases the pollutants that need to be removed by the pollution-control devices. Making organic fertiliser out of waste is a more effective and usually less expensive means of managing organic wastes.Sewage
Since the 1800's mankind has slowly been transforming our water into diseased liquid waste. One of the major causes of pollution to our water supply is sewage. It leaks into the ground water, waterways and ultimately our oceans, polluting our environment, killing our fauna and contaminating our food chain. Research has shown that 50% of all septic tanks don't work properly making the flush toilet possibly the most ecologically destructive invention in the last 200 years. The average family flushes around 40,000 litres of precious drinking water around the 'S' bend every year. When this water is combined with human waste it is transformed into about eight tonnes of pollution for every man, woman, and child each year.Shipping & Aviation
CASA in row over SAGT payments to Singapore
The agreement between SAGT and the Board of Investment of Sri Lanka has raised a number of issues concerning the remittance of payments. Under the said agreement SAGT has the option of collecting a minimum of 70 per cent of its revenue in a foreign country.Due to the nature of this contract neither exchange control nor the Central Bank have any governing authority concerning the collections made by SAGT. Although the authorities at Exchange Control have recommended that the said funds be collected in a USD account in Sri Lanka, SAGT have yet to respond. The option of collecting funds in Singapore still remains.
The Exchange Controller has further suggested that CASA pursue the matter
with the Board of Investment. Sources indicate that a statement indicating
the authority's inability to take action would seriously damage the credibility
of Exchange Control. CASA are expected to issue a statement in the near
future.
Container volumes slip to new low
The decline in the transshipment volumes handled by the Port of Colombo, which began in 1998 and continued through 1999, appears to be increasing in intensity this year. An overall drop of 3.7 per cent has reduced the number of containers handled from 145,842 TEUs in January last year to 140,842 TEUs for the same period this year. Transshipment volumes have dropped by 9.4 per cent from figures in January, 1999.An increase of 23.1 per cent in the export container segment has failed to stem this decline in overall volumes handled. Import figures too have seen a decline of two per cent from 20,435 TEUs in January last year to 20,025 TEUs this year.
This decline is directly linked to the drop in total vessel arrivals from 350 in January, 1999 to 328 for the same period this year. This marked a 7.1 per cent drop in the number of container vessels calling at the Port of Colombo has dropped from 277 in January, 1999 to 251 in January 2000.
A shipping agent attributes the drop to "the failure of the relevant
authorities in taking timely action, and not improving productivity and
customer services". This slump has led to an "overall depression in the
industry which has been on an upward trend for over two decades", he added.
PSA Corp hits double-digits
PSA Corp Singapore has seen double-digit growth in the first quarter of this year, with throughput in January up 11 per cent compared to January last year.PSA chairman Yeo Ning Hong said this was a welcome boost after a two-and-a-half year Asian economic crisis. "It looks as if there is a global kick-up, a very sizable kick-up, and like everyone else in the industry, we are enjoying that mini-boom," he said. The total number of TEUs for January amounted to 1.3 million according to figures from the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore.
In addition, many countries in the region have also started the year with economic gains reflecting the upward trend in trade.
Many shipping lines have announced restoration of volumes on all trades, one of them being P&O Nedlloyd, who estimated a growth of ten per cent for this year.
As such, Hong is confident that PSA Corp can easily handle two million boxes this year at the new Pasir Panjang Terminal (PPT), the first six berths of which were officially opened at the end of March. PPT uses the latest operations research technologies to reap the highest productivity and provide customised services for shipping lines.
PSA, which is a front runner in the shipping industry with regard to B2B e-commerce, may in the future join the increasing number of firms operating dot-com portals.
As competition hots- up in South-east Asia with the opening of Tanjung
Pelepas and the new Malaysian port receiving more direct calls, PSA is
taking in its stride a phenomenon not new for the world's only overwhelmingly
transshipment port.
Greenlanka surpasses million mark
Agent in Sri Lanka for Taiwanese mainline operator Evergreen Marine Corporation and its fully owned subsidiary - Uniglory, Greenlanka celebrated the aggregated handling of a million TEUs, last year. The firm has been in operation for over a decade."In fact, 1999 has been a very successful year for us," said Hassan Y. Sally, Gm at Greenlanka.
Greenlanka recorded a throughput of 176,041 TEUs, comprising 139,132 TEUs for Evergreen and 36,909 for Uniglory.
This figure was a 22.7 per cent improvement over 1998.
"We were hoping to achieve a throughput of 200,000 TEUs for 1999, but failed to for a number of reasons," said Sally.
Greenlanka have begun a number of new services to better serve the market. In addition to four Evergreen and three Uniglory services per month, they now also offer a China-Persian Gulf service, which is a slot sharing arrangement between Cosco and Uniglory.
Evergreen is also expected to start a new westbound service next year.
This service which will be called APS, will be offered by Uniglory. The
service will begin at Pusan and take in Taichung, Hong Kong, Singapore,
Colombo, Dubai and the Persian Gulf before turning back towards Karachi's
Nhava Sheva Port.
ECU-LINE opens dedicated office in Ireland
For many years, ECU-LINE has held an import portion of the Irish shipping market, via local partners. However, in September last year, the company opened up its own office - ECU-LINE Ireland, together with a local partner in Dublin. This presence was strengthened by the opening of another office in Cork.ECU-LINE is positioning itself as a complete NVO operator in Ireland, providing services to world-wide destinations, offered via the Ecu-Line network. A weekly feeder service operates between Dublin/Cork and Antwerp, from where on-forwarding is arranged to ports around the world.
In Dublin and Cork, ECU-LINE has situated its offices in the ports, providing a host of advantages. In addition to FCL and groupage, ECU-LINE together with ECU-TRANS, offers a trucking service thus providing a comprehensive transport solution to customers.
Further developments are expected in the near future.
Wanhai strengthens KME via Colombo
WHL Taipei terminated its joint service with Hyundai on March 31, 2000 and began a new joint service with OOCL.The move by WHL is aimed at increasing the tonnage capacity on its Korea/Middle East service.
The earlier operation with Hyundai comprised four vessels belonging to Hyundai and two vessels from WHL. The new service will have a total of six vessels, four from WHL and two from OOCL which will provide larger tonnage.
New service
This new KMS service comprises six 1600 TEU vessels. They are Pacific Trader, Warnow Trader, Wanahai 231, Wanhai 232 of WHL and MV Kindia and Mira of OOCL.The service will begin from Inchon and call on Kwang Yang, Busan, Keelung, Hong Kong, Singapore, P'Kelang and Colombo.
From Colombo the service will continue on to Jebel Ali, Bandar Abbas, Karachi and turn back to Penang, S'pore, Hong Kong and Keelung.
Key changes
The new route will bypass Dammam and Bandar Abbas after leaving Dubai. This key change will provide better transit and turnaround time from Colombo to Iran and the Persian Gulf.Another key change in the new service is the Colombo call being shifted from Sunday to Monday.
This change is to provide Tea dealers better breathing time. The first vessel of this service called in Colombo last week.
WHL also considers the CIS market as lucrative and will pursue the possibilities
of servicing this sector through Dubai and Bandar Abbas.
The big six still hold sway
More power in fewer hands. That's the future for the world's container handling industry.Some might say such a trend is a natural corollary to the scaling up taking place in the liner-shipping sector. This certainly is a contributory factor, but it is by no means the whole story.
The trend kicked-off some years ago when port privatisation gained favour and provided the vehicle through which stevedoring bodies were formed to operate on a global basis.
Albeit sometimes under a different name, organisations such as Hutchison, International Container Terminal Services Inc, P&O Ports and Stevedoring Services of America recognised the opportunity presented to them by bidding for and winning terminal concessions offered by the public sector.
Through this mechanism they could develop global terminal networks away from their traditional home bases. Singapore's PSA Corporation followed in their footsteps and even more recently another big player has emerged n the shape of Eurogate, created as a result of the merger of the container operations of Eurokai of Hamburg and Bremerlagerhaus Gesellschaft of Bremerhaven.
Between them, these six companies alone now account for around 40 per cent of the world's annual container handling liftings.
And all of them still have major commitment to further expansion, through the traditional concession route but also now through private sector acquisitions.
Today, there is a second-wave of terminal operators to compete against.
There are also construction companies. local interests, institutional investors
and last but not least shipping lines.
KLM cuts routes to restore profits
At least two Asian centres will be affected by the decision of Dutch carrier KLM to suspend flights on several of its longhaul and European routes out of Amsterdam's Schiphol airport last month.Karachi in Pakistan is one of the points that lost services.
However, Tokyo benefited from the changes as some of the capacity released by the cutbacks in the KLM network were redeployed on more profitable routes.
With effect from its summer schedule - which began on March 26 - KLM ceased flights on routes out of Amsterdam to Karachi, Riyadh and Jeddah (Saudi Arabia), Baku (Azerbaijan), Santiago (Chile), Basel/Mulhouse (Switzerland) and London Gatwick.
In addition, the carrier's service between Amsterdam and Kristiansand (Norway) will be suspended with effect from July 3, 2000.
However, within the KLM/Alitalia joint venture, the latter will continue to operate to Jeddah from Malpensa and Rome and to London Gatwick from various Italian centres. KLM partner Braathens will continue to serve Kristiansand from various Scandinavian destinations. London Gatwick will continue to be served by US alliance partner Northwest Airlines from Minneapolis.
Among the KLM routes scheduled to see increased capacity are Amsterdam-Tokyo and Amsterdam-San Francisco.
Zero growth
The net result of the service changes planned, said KLM, would be zero growth in the airline's overall network capacity this summer.The Dutch carrier had previously been planning an increase of around three to four per cent for that period.
Explaining the recent change of plans, KLM said the new measures were designed to rationalise its route network in line with the company's plans to restore an "acceptable" level of profitability.
"The combination of downward pressure on unit revenues and high fuel prices make it imperative to reverse the upward trend in unit costs in order to improve operating margins," the airline said.
It added that a programme drawn up to improve profitability also included "further scrutinisation of all non-operational activities for their value-generating performance and potential".
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